Retrofit: Exploring Space, Place, and the Artifact in Special Collections

Join your colleagues at the 2014 RBMS Preconference where we will consider the broad metaphorical themes of space, place, and the artifact in the special collections milieu inspired by the RBMS preconferences and meetings of the early 1960s.

While special collections practices may have changed over the last 50 years, our core issues echo the challenges faced by our predecessors. Financial problems? Cataloguing and classifying? Acquainting the public with rare materials? Do these topics ring a bell with you? Special collections professionals today regularly confront challenges in the development of collections, the creation and use of space, and the definition of our roles within the larger contexts of institutional administration and intellectual life. Focusing on the artifact, the library/archive, and the marketplace, we aim to honor the past by addressing ways to “retrofit” ideas concerning these spaces and places fifty years ago and how pertinent these concepts are today.

We will meet in Las Vegas – a land of magic, entertainment, neon, and atomic testing – from June 24-27 for conversation and inspiration. Board our thematic spaceship and let’s revisit the lessons of the past to build for tomorrow.

Book/Artifact as Place: Our opening plenary will focus on the artifact (i.e., the book, manuscript, and archive) as the fundamental unit central to our mission and to scholarship. Brian E. C. Schottlaender will address the topic from the perspective of a university library administrator and collector exploring the growing demands for innovation and collaboration. Andrew Stauffer will provide his view as a scholar researching the ‘book as archive’ and the impact of his discoveries on our work.

Marketplace: Thursday’s plenary will examine the marketplace and its effect on the special collections ecosystem. Nina Musinsky will offer an overview of the market as a member of the rare book trade. Steve Enniss will follow with an upper-level administrator’s perspective on the marketplace. Michelle Light will consider the evolving roles and opportunities for Special Collections in the marketplace, particularly with the advent of digitization and users’ enhanced expectations.

Library/Archive as Place: Our closing plenary will delve into the construction and use of space, both physical and digital. Jim Reilly will address planning and implementing preservation strategies that balance effectiveness, cost, and environmental impact. Emily Gore will focus on the increasing opportunities for special collections libraries outreach via the development of new digital spaces. Shannon Mattern will share her research on the relationships between materialities of media and spaces by exploring the library/archive as a physical and metaphorical place.

Meet Our Plenary Speakers

Brian E. C. Schottlaender, Plenary 1

The Audrey Geisel University Librarian,University of California, San Diego

Brian is the Immediate Past Chair of the Board of Governors of the HathiTrust. He is also a member of the Boards of Trustees of ArchivesSpace, the Digital Preservation Network, and OCLC, and serves as an elected member of the governing Council of the American Library Association.

Andrew Stauffer, Plenary 1

Department of English,University of Virginia

Andrew is an associate professor of English, the Director of NINES (http://nines.org), and a member of the faculty of the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Anger, Revolution, and Romanticism (Cambridge UP, 2005) and numerous articles on nineteenth-century British literature. He is currently working on a book entitled, Postcard from the Volcano: The Troubled Archive of Nineteenth-Century Literature.

Nina Musinsky, Plenary 2

Proprietor,Musinsky Rare Books, New York

Nina is the proprietor of Musinsky Rare Books, Inc. which handles 15th- to early 19th-century Western European printed books and manuscripts in the humanities. Nina is currently Chair of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the ABAA and serves on the Council of the Bibliographical Society of America.

Steve Enniss, Plenary 2

Director, Harry Ransom Center,University of Texas at Austin

Steve is Director of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. He previously served as Eric Weinmann Librarian at the Folger Shakespeare Library and, before that, Director of Emory University’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library.

Michelle Light, Plenary 2

Director of Special Collections,University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Michelle has been at UNLV Libraries since March of 2013. Prior, she was Head of Special Collections, Archives, and Digital Scholarship at University of California, Irvine. Michelle is an active member of the Society of American Archivists and has held numerous roles therein most recently being elected to the SAA Council.

Under Jim’s leadership, IPI has made important contributions to image preservation, management of film archives, environmental monitoring and control, and sustainable preservation practice.

Emily Gore, Plenary 3

Content Director,Digital Public Library of America

Emily is the Director for Content of the Digital Public Library of America. In this role, Emily oversees the Digital Hubs Pilot Project and provides vision and oversight for content in the DPLA. Emily has been the recipient of over $5 million of grant funding during the course of her career. She has a Master’s degree in Library and Information Studies from the University of Alabama, a BA in English/Technical Writing from Clemson University and is a 2011 graduate of the Frye Leadership Institute.

Shannon Mattern, Plenary 3

Associate Professor, School of Media Studies,The New School

Shannon’s research and teaching address the forms and materialities of media and the spaces (architectural, urban, conceptual) they create and inhabit. She’s written about archives, libraries, and other media-architectures; media infrastructures; place branding; public design projects; multisensoriality; and media exhibition. She’s the author of The New Downtown Library: Designing with Communities (Minnesota 2007). You can find her at wordsinspace.net.